Abingdon School - History

History

The precise date of Abingdon's foundation is unclear. Some believe the school to have been founded prior to 12th century by the Benedictine monks of Abingdon Abbey, with a legal document of 1100 listing Richard the Pedagogue as the first headmaster. From its early years, the school used a room in St Nicholas' Church, which itself was built between 1121 and 1184.

The school now takes its anniversary from the earliest surviving reference to the school - 1256 - a charter of Abingdon Abbey recording an endowment by Abbot John de Blosneville for the support of thirteen poor scholars. In the past though, the school considered itself as having been founded by John Roysse in 1563. This led to the unusual circumstance whereby the school celebrated its 400th anniversary in 1963 (at which HRH Princess Margaret was guest of honour), and then its 750th in 2006. The focus on 1256 facilitated extensive anniversarial fundraising in 2006.

By the time of de Blosneville's endowment in 1256, the school had moved to a couple of rooms in Stert Street with a house for boarders at 3 Stert Street under the charge of a Dionysia Mundy. With John Roysse's re-endowment of 1563, the school moved to a site south of the Abbey gateway. Roysse was a prosperous mercer in the City of London, and through this association the school has received substantial benefactions from the Worshipful Company of Mercers. The name Roysse's School was used until the 1960s and many older Abingdon residents still use the term.

After the dissolution of Abingdon Abbey in 1538, the school passed through a difficult phase: the sixteenth century endowments by Old Abingdonians attempted to overcome the loss of monastic support. Thomas Tesdale, who had been a pupil in 1563, made provision for an Usher to teach six poor scholars from the Borough of Abingdon and offered support for thirteen Abingdon students to study at Oxford. This benefaction eventually developed into Pembroke College in 1624 by the re-foundation of Broadgates Hall.

The six poor scholars, known as Bennett Boys, or colloquially as the Gown Boys due to their dress, were financed by another Old Abingdonian, William Bennett. Between 1609 and 1870 the school maintained a dual management: the Headmaster, appointed by the Mayor and Corporation, and the Tesdale Usher and Bennett Scholars appointed by the Master and Governors of Christ's Hospital, Abingdon. Despite being penalised during and after the English Civil War for its royalist and Anglican tendencies the school survived and achieved somewhat of a revival under headmaster Robert Jennings (1657–1683). 1671 saw the expulsion of ten boys after they refused to attend Anglican services at St Helen's church.

The school experienced a period of success during the 18th century under headmaster Thomas Woods (1716–1753), known as 'Flogging Tom'. The school became popular amongst the local aristocracy and many OAs went onto to successful careers in various areas. In 1743 The Old Abingdonian Club was inaugurated, it is consequently one of the oldest such organisations in the country.

At the turn of the century the school went into decline under the leadership of the 'incompetent' headmaster Dr. John Lempriere. As a consequence Pembroke College, Oxford used the University Reform Act of 1854 as an excuse to cut its links with the school.

The current school site in the Victorian quarter of Abingdon, adjacent to Albert Park, was designed by Edwin Dolby and was developed from 1870. Its architecture was described in The Builder that year as externally "of a simple character, the local material of red brick and tile being the chief material employed, relieved by bands of Bath stone". Extensions to the 1870 buildings were added in 1880. In 1901, a chapel and gymnasium were built. The adjacent Waste Court property was acquired in 1928. The Science School came in 1952. In 1963, to mark the Quartercentenary of the school's re-foundation, the big schoolroom was re-ordered as the Grundy Library (opened by HRH Princess Margaret), together with erection of further buildings east of the Science Wing, the whole becoming known as Big School. In 1980, the Amey Theatre and Arts' Centre was opened and the Sports Centre opened in 1984. Mercers Court was opened in 1994 by the Chancellor of Oxford University and Visitor of Pembroke College, Baron Jenkins of Hillhead. In 2003, the new Arts Department was opened (adjacent to the Amey Theatre).

On 4 October 2008, the newly completed Sports Centre was opened by MP Kate Hoey, with assistance from footballer Martin Keown, swimmer Robin Brew and pentathlete Kate Allenby. This multi-million pound project took 5 years to complete and has increased the floorspace of the school by 40% Plans for the complex were formally launched by HRH Princess Anne in 2006.

In September 2010 Felicity Lusk, formerly headmistress of Oxford High School for Girls, a GDST school, replaced Mark Turner as Head of Abingdon. She has become the first female Head, not only of Abingdon, but of any boys' boarding public school. David Lillycrop, Abingdon's chair of governors, said the move would 'help the boys to think in new ways but without losing the things that have given the school such an attractive character in the past', while Felicity Lusk herself remarked that 'There aren’t many women doing what I’m going to be doing, I think they have been quite brave ... last bastion of education has been broken through'. One of Felicity Lusk's first actions as Head was to abolish Saturday morning school and restructure Abingdon's school day around 55, instead of 35, minute lessons.